It seems that Republican male legislators in New Hampshire are really taking the gloves off -- wearing pearls to mock moms involved in trying to act against gun violence. The trope of pearl-clutching, easily-offended liberals has a tradition in American politics.

"Male New Hampshire lawmakers on the hearing committee wearing pearls to mock Moms Demand Action volunteers and gun safety advocates," wrote Shannon Watts, founder of the gun control group Moms Demand Action, to describe the picture above.

Her post condemning the men quickly spread, accruing more than 6,000 shares and almost 5,000 comments, writes the BBC.

Debra Altschiller, a Democratic representative who sponsored the bill, tweeted: "Disappointed in the pearl clutching by @NHGOP [New Hampshire Republicans]. There are families who have lost loved ones here and this mocking prop shows how little they empathise with suicide."

Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense founder Shannon Watts joins other gun-safety advocates for a news conference to introduce legislation to expand background checks for firearm sales in the Rayburn Room of the U.S. Capitol Jan. 8, 2019, in Washington. via CBS News

Republicans have responded that they were standing in solidarity with a pro-gun women’s group "The use of pearls date back to 2016 and the legislators and Second Amendment supporters were in no way wearing them in a mocking fashion to those who came to testify yesterday.

"They are a symbol of solidarity with the Women's Defense League and the Second Amendment community in the Granite State." CBS Newsreports that Kimberly Morin, the leader of the Women's Defense League, told media that its members first wore pearls 2016, when it showed support for a bill allowing gun owners to carry concealed weapons without a permit.

Morin said the pearls are worn "in defense of women's rights”, adding "We are moms just like they are only on different sides."

The New Hampshire hearing focused on a so-called "red flag" bill that empowers family members or law enforcement officers to go to gain court approval to temporarily take guns away from people who may pose an immediate threat to other people and themselves. Fourteen states have already passed such laws, according to The Associated Press.

Margaret Tilton of Exeter, whose son George died by suicide in 2017 at the age of 23, testified in front of the pearl-wearing men, according to the AP. Tilton told the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee that police were able to convince him to hand over a gun in 2016, but he was able to buy another one.

In this case a picture is worth a thousand words, and the perception of men wearing pearls as mocking women has far greater probable impact, given the constant mocking of progressive female values by Republicans.

Hey, when you're drowning in your own testosterone and Biblical interpretation that women must submit to you, I guess this is how Repubs treat women trying to save lives in the most violent developed nation on Earth. Funny how God didn't rain guns in all those other countries, just the USA. We're so special.

In 2012, as the Republican War on Women was roaring into high gear, Slate wrote: ‘A Plague of Pearl Clutching’. AOC notes that the far left has also used the expression of pearl-clutchers to describe Hillary Clinton supporters as making a big deal of events like this one but not being willing to take to the streets to truly fight Republicans.

Arizona could be the 38th state, now that more Dems are in the legislature. There is a 38 mile march scheduled for Arizona Mar. 11-13, ending at the state capitol.

And with a Dem-controlled House, Nancy Pelosi will wage all-out war against Republicans who say the time for passing the ERA has expired. If somehow Congress votes to accept the positive result of vatification by the states, it will be tied up in court for years.

One thing we know for sure is that Republicans will lie down and die before permitting the Equal Rights Amendment to become part of the Constitution. I say make their resistance part of the 2020 election year battle.

Let the Repubilcans explain to women why they oppose equality, saying that the religous freedoms of white men trump our own rights. So-called religious freedom for the patriarchy is way out of control in this country. For example, abortion was legal when the Constitution was signed. Democratic women want Republican white men on the Congressional record.

American teenagers no longer hang out at the mall like generations past. Their lives are far more complex and demanding; then add in the high priority of digital culture and online shopping in their lives. Their fashion fav brands often aren’t even sold in America’s shopping malls.

Last week was a brutal one for American retailers. L Brands made the decision to close 53 Victoria’s Secret stores in North America. Gap Inc. announced that it will close 230 stores in the next two years. J.C. Penney weighed in with 18 new department store closures. Earlier in February Payless announced the closure of 2,500 in America.

It’s not all bad news. Planet Fitness Chief Executive officer Chris Rondeau said his business is immune to e-commerce’s effects on brick-and-mortar, making it a good mall tenant, writes Business of Fashion.

“Our business can’t be Amazoned. We’re un-Amazonable,” he said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “We do about 5,000 workouts per gym per week, about 8 million workouts a week in the U.S., so look at how much traffic we drive to these centers every day. And the majority of those visits are Monday through Wednesday; most retailers are busy on the weekends, so we’re a great co-tenant for these retailers to drive that traffic.”

For many people, new forms of mobility, led by Uber and Lyft, and including car sharing, robo-taxis, electric scooters and bikes, are making privately-owned vehicles obsolete. Only 26 percent of America’s 16-year-olds earned a driver’s license in 2017, down by half in just 36 years. The trend is global, with auto sales in China falling by 18 percent in January.

The migration of people to mega-cities is also impacting the car business, and we haven’t tackled topics of car waste generally and fuel emissions in cars. Younger people are adamantly concerned about the environment.

Coming Soon

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